Email

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education for how long emails (a) sent and (b) received are retained on his Department's systems; what the internal process is for retrieving and searching such emails; and if he will make a statement.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department does not stipulate how long e-mails should be retained and expects officials to use their judgment based on the content of the e-mail. The Department has no central facility for searching every e-mail, though all officials have the facility to search their own e-mails at any time.
	The Department has policies and guidance for the retention of information, including e-mails, relating to the work of the Department, that should be retained as a formal record. These retention policies are based on guidance from the National Archives and apply to all records regardless of medium or format. The management of information and records is the responsibility of all individual staff members. Guidance is published on the intranet and available to all staff. Records within the Electronic Document and Records Management system can be searched and retrieved centrally.
	The Government publishes Destination Measures showing the percentage of students progressing from school or college to further or higher education, employment or training. These show how effective schools are in supporting pupils to move successfully into the next phase of their education or into sustainable work, including through the provision of independent careers guidance.
	The Government responded to Ofsted's report on 10 September, publishing a vision statement for careers inspiration and an action plan outlining how we intend to take forward their recommendations. Both documents have been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Vocational Guidance

Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of careers advice and guidance at schools and colleges of further education.

Matthew Hancock: The Department commissioned Ofsted to conduct a thematic review to assess early progress on implementation of the legal duty on schools to secure access to independent and impartial careers guidance. This report was published on 10 September. Ofsted found that, while-some schools have responded well to the new duty, the majority of schools need to have higher ambitions for their students and place inspiring careers support at the heart of what they do. Further education colleges were not included in the Ofsted review because the legal duty was only extended to cover 16 to 18-year-olds in further education from September 2013.
	Ofsted have confirmed that the provision of careers guidance and destinations of pupils will be given higher priority in their school inspections for the 2013/14 academic year. Ofsted also evaluate learner progression to courses leading to higher-level qualifications and into jobs that meet local and national needs, as part of their college inspections.